Empire State of Mind
by Phavorable
Summary: Guns, I don't like guns. "Which comes to another topic. We'd like you to join us - S.E.E.S." Akihiko x OC.
1. Chapter 1

"_How are you feeling?_"

I don't know, I don't care. My head hurts - why? My palm reaches to cover it, but an eyebrow raised once my fingertips are met with the uncomfortable touch of bandage material. 

I move - no, I struggle to move. My toes barely move, but my arms feel fine. Paralyzed? I don't think any thing that extreme could have happened.

_What happened?_

I think, but my mind draws blank after leaving my hotel room. My hand falls down to my side, to see if I feel the flannel material of my outfit, but I'm met with cheap fabric instead. Hospital Fabric, I knew it all to well.

I hear the faint _beep, beep, beep, _of the machine next to me. My heart beat. I'm in the hospital - why? I'm almost ninety-eight point eight percent positive I did not fall down the long, marble stairs of the Hotel I was staying at. I was clumsy, but not so clumsy as to fall and crack my head open and not be able to even move my toes.

I blink my eyes though they're still closed.  I don't want them to be opened, I don't like hospitals for reasons upon reasons.

"_I'm sorry to inform you, Miss. Giovanni, but we weren't able to save them._"

My body tensed, and the machine next to me showed a more rapid heart beat. I heard the squeaking of plastic, then a small cough. "Are you awake, finally?"

I wanted to shake my head, but all I did was move my hand. "Yes." I think that's what came out, but with my own voice being so raspy I couldn't even tell, nothing was in the clear.

The voice - a male's, which was like velvet in my ears - laughed. "Don't talk, that was my own fault. I'm just going to ask you yes or no questions, so do you have enough energy to nod?"

I showed him I did by nodding, and he began the questions. "Do you remember anything?" He didn't specify, but I shook my head. "Are you a student at Gekkoukan High School?" I nodded. That was the reason why I came to this town, for my full scholarship to the school. "Are any relatives currently living with you?" My body tensed, and the beeping sound became so much more quicker; I shook my head.

"I don't have any relatives." I might as well use what energy I have left to somewhat explain what I remember.

"Are you staying at the girls dorm?" I nodded, and he continued. "I'm going to ask one more time, and then I'll get the nurse. Do you remember anything?"

Silence. I racked my brain as hard as I could, but nothing popped up. I left the Hotel - pissed, and walked down the street. I turned sharply, trying to avoid the drunks, and my iPod died. It was midnight, I think. I walked down an alley way, not having any sense of direction, and...

"Blood..." I whispered out. "There was a lot of it."

"What else do you remember?"

"A coffin - no, multiple coffins. A-and the moon..."

**-----------------------------------**

"Personas." The man - Ikutsuki - explained. "They are our suppressed powers, which help us fight shadows."

"Shadows." I said out loud, shifting uncomfortably in my seat. "That's what gave me the cut on my head?"

All of them - Mitsuru, Shinjiro, Akihiko and Ikutsuki nodded, but the older man was the only one to speak. "Yes. You were lucky Akihiko was here, or else you would've been gone."

"But if I'm understanding you correctly, wouldn't my persona just pop out and protect me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You need an evoker, which comes to our next topic. Akihiko, the brief case, please."

Akihiko - who I learned was the voice at the hospital, placed a silver, metal brief case on the large wooden table. My eyes always lingered on his face for longer than they should have. "Just don't freak out." Akihiko said with a small sigh, "I can't have you passing out again." 

My cheeks got hot. Right, after getting some of my memory back in the hospital I fell unconscious. Akihiko opened the brief case, and my eyes got big.

Guns. I don't like guns. "W-why are those guns?"

"They aren't actually guns. They're evokers in the shape of guns." The brilliant red head - Mitsuru - explained. "And to evoke them, well, I'm sure you'll find out soon."

So no bullets came out, if I'm at least right about that. "Okay. So, I need to evoke my persona for the rest of my life so I won't be hurt?"

Ikutsuki smiled - I couldn't tell if it was fake or not. "Which comes to another topic. We'd like you to join us - S.E.E.S."


	2. Waste time, with you

I don't know the time when I wake up. I don't bother to check anything, I just wander.

It was my first night doing the dark hour. Apparently, it was rare that I didn't pass out and need to go to the hospital. I didn't call it rare - I call it five years of boxing practice to help me be able to stand after shooting a gun to your head and shouting 'PERSONAE!'

Persona, actually. I still wasn't used to the word. It was foreign to me, though I wanted to take psychology in college. Persona was a commonly used term in that course; in that work, but I wasn't used to saying it yet. In all honesty, I think I don't want to say it.

I walked down the long stairs, careful not to touch anything that could make a creak noise. I guess that was a nervous habit from my foster home. Don't make any noises at night, no yelling, no late night snacks -

My stomach started to hurt at that last rule. _No late night snacks. _I wasn't in New York anymore - I wasn't in the small Williamsburg house that had me following rules my family would roll their eyes at - _if they were still here_.

I shook my head of those thoughts and went to the kitchen we had. Really, all we needed was a microwave for ramen, but I guess an elaborate kitchen that looked like it belonged to a five star restaurant was needed. 

The light was on, and a tall figure was slightly hunched over something. Their hair was dark and messy, sticking out every way it had a chance to. Mitsuru? No. Her hair was that brilliant red color I would die for two years ago.

"Shinjiro?"

He jumped, quickly turning around and hiding whatever he had behind his back. "T-Tara? What the hell are you doing?"

I raised an eyebrow, walking over to the refrigerator with ease. "Relax. I'm just hungry."

"At 2 in the morning?"

Well, thanks for telling me the time, Shinjiro. I'll have to remember that kind deed later. "I didn't think it was so late. I didn't really eat dinner, so."

I ignored his stare and opened the large metal doors, my eyes looking through everything that was on the shelfs. Salad, bread, milk, eggs; I let out a frustrated sigh. "Where's all the junk food?"

"I don't know. You didn't find food, so go back to sleep." Shinjiro quickly responded, still protecting whatever was behind his back. 

I shouldn't, but something made me incredibly curious. I raised an eyebrow and bit back a smile. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I was hungry, too." He explained, as quickly before. "What? Is this twenty questions or some shit?"

I shrugged. "No, I was just wondering. So what are you making?"

"Nothing. What makes you think I'm making something?"

"There's a blue bowl with brown stuff in it," I pointed out simply, walking over to the small table the kitchen had. I took a seat before talking again. "Cake mix?"

Shinjiro's eyes narrowed. "Are you implying I actually cook?"

I nodded simply. "Pretty much. Am I wrong?"

He kept silent, looking from the floor to me a few times. I rolled my eyes. "Relax, I won't tell anyone. I'm not that type of person. Give me a piece of the cake when you're done, however, and I'll be your best friend."

The look on his face was priceless; he was contemplating - incredibly hard - and after a while I could have sworn I saw a vein on his forehead almost pop out. "Fine."

**-----------------------------------------------**

"He was crazy." I sighed, placing my plastic fork down on the plate. "Within an hour of dating he just goes, 'I love you so much.'"

"Did you break up with him?" Shinjiro inquired, leaning back in his seat.

I shook my head. "No. Girls don't like breaking up with guys. Usually, anyway. So I kept up with him for two more weeks. Crazy."

I don't know how we got on this subject. It started off as him just replying with a 'huh' anytime I said something, then a 'yes', then once I started talking about foster care is when he started to reply with an 'Oh really?' I was making progress... I think.

"What are you guys doing up?" A raspy voice asked, making Shinjiro and I both jump.

"Nothing, Aki." Shinjiro responded. "We were hungry, so.."

"I made cake." I said with a shrug, gesturing towards the half eaten chocolate dessert. "You can have some if you want."

Shinjiro shot me a look, and if I was correct it was a thankful one, so I smiled lightly. Akihiko walked to the table and sat down, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You can cook?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Shinjiro came down when I was making it, so we've been up since then."

"You know school is in an hour, right?" Akihiko asked, resting his head on the table.

An hour? So we've been talking for four hours? A cake only takes an hour to bake, and thirty minutes to cool down. Well, I guess I made more progress than I originally thought I did.

"Oh, well." I sighed, picking mine and Shinjiro's empty dishes up. I walked over to the garbage can and threw them out, then walked back down to my seat. "It's a Friday. Nothing really important happens on a Friday."

Akihiko laughed, and I almost melted in the chair right in that moment. "You never know with Edogawa."

"Fuck him." Shinjiro replied. "I don't care about magic. We know more than he could ever hope to."

I came to the conclusion in those small hours, that I'm glad to be here - in S.E.E.S. 

Or, for now, anyway.


	3. She wolf

I have a lot of tricks to see if a guy likes me; I don't beat around the bush. Most of the time, anyway.

A personal favorite of mine was the moving trick. You could do this in real life or not, but from experience I think real life would be a lot better. Anyway, it goes like this.

You drop your eyes to the ground and let the saddest of sighs escape your lips. After a few moments, you mutter out in barely a whisper: "I think I'm moving."

From there it either goes good or bad, really it all depends. The other person should, if they like you, go "No, why?! I'm going to miss you, this isn't fair. I didn't even have a chance to do something I've really been wanting to." You let it wait out for a few days, then go "I have good news, I'm not moving after all." And kind of instantly, you get what you want. That usually works - usually.

Another one I'm especially fond of is the 'who do you like' game. That works exactly how it sounds, you just start a simple game where you ask the other person 'who do you like?' Or, you tell them you like someone. Usually, they'll ask back, and when they do simply reply by saying "I won't tell you unless you tell me." It should work in your favor - usually.

I'm saying usually because all these tricks do nothing with Akihiko. I couldn't use the moving one because he knew I couldn't leave Iwatowdi if I wanted. I was left with the game trick, and that just left me slightly depressed.

**----------------------------------**

"I like this guy." I sighed, leaning back in the leather recliner. "But I think we're too much in the friend zone."

Akihiko simply nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the Mayweather vs Marquez fight that was on TV. "Who do you even like?"

I did my best to bite back a smirk. My plan was working perfectly. "I can't tell you! Tell me who you like and I'll tell you."

I could see his gray eyes roll. "I don't like anyone, I don't have time for that. Besides, all girls do is throw themselves at guys.

I frowned. "Not all girls are like that, Aki. Just some of the ones that like you."

"Some? Who are the ones who don't throw themselves at me?" He turned his attention to me for only a split second, but once he heard the shouting 'HE'S KNOCKED OUT!', he went right back to the TV.

"The shy ones? Or the ones who don't think they have a chance with you at all?" Obviously. I'm pretty sure I didn't throw myself at him, wanting my boobs to be signed with a sharpie so I can tattoo his autograph on my chest later on in life.

"Shy girls... I don't really like them. And why can't a girl just say how they're feeling without being...too open about it?" He sighed, beginning to rub his temple. _Right, because finding a girl like that is so hard that you have a headache. _"Girls are so confusing. They're just a constant paradox."

"So? Guys are confusing too. They say they want a girl who's into the same stuff as them, and then when they find a girl like that they think she's a lesbian. Or a loser. Or a tom boy." I quickly defended, getting up from the seat. "Like you, Aki. I know a girl who likes you and likes the same stuff you do, but you won't even give her the time of day." Smooth, Tara, you said to much. The plan was officially over. Congratulations, you're stupid.

"Who?" Akihiko asked, now also standing up from his seat. "You? I'm not dumb, Tara. Don't bother with trying to tell me false rumors. The only girls who likes me are the ones who think a sparkling vampire is real."

Well, here's the thing, Aki. It wasn't a rumor because the only girl I told was Ayame - and she's scared to death of you so she wouldn't tell a soul. Obviously, you are dumb if you can't tell I've been crushing - hard, may I add - since I first saw you in the hospital almost two weeks ago.

I rolled my eyes, beginning to walk towards the stairs. "You really must not get girls, Aki."

**-----------------------------------**

Yeah. I guess I shouldn't mind just being friends with Akihiko, though. Most girls would kill just to be able to call him their best friend; to just hang out with him as much as I do. I should just be thankful to have someone, right?

Right. So why does it hurt so much when I talk to him? Why does that same fucking stomach ache appear anytime I see him?

_Because we're just friends. _I don't want to like him at all, so I focus on everything I can't stand about him. His responses - they come off as complete douche bag things to say, but he doesn't mean it like that. I leave out that last part. His constant training - he would never have time for a serious relationship. He can't cook (I think, unless he hides it like Shinji), and I'm sure that also means he can't clean. _But wouldn't that really be up to me? _

Nice sexist joke to contradict yourself, self.

"I'd just be like, 'Hello, Good sir. Currently, you are the object of my affection. We shall woo each other.'" Ayame said with a shrug, leaning back in her train seat. "It works every time."

I rolled my eyes. "You can't be serious, Ayame. 'We shall woo each other'? This isn't the sixteen hundreds."

"It's poetic. Guys like a good poet. Plus, that would just be hilarious to say to Akihiko."


End file.
